The rise of social media has been the ultimate gift to corporations and small business’ (personal brands included). Reaching the masses has never been so easy, giving podcasters a great opportunity to promote their shows and grow their audiences. Utilizing social media to grow a brand is nothing new, with the vast majority already doing so. BUT… that doesn’t mean that everyone is doing it correctly.
After all the work is done – recording, editing, uploading – often times podcasters forget that they still have to get their hard work out there for others to listen to. Using social media effectively is an art that can produce tremendous fruits or nothing at all. A strategy is always very necessary, so don’t just jump in guns blazing. That being said, every show is different and has a unique identity, with a social media account following suit. If you don’t already have accounts set up for your show, it’s not too late to start. Use these 18 tips and tricks to grow your show!
1. Strategically Choose Your Platforms
In today’s world there is certainly no lack of social media platforms to choose from! The key is picking those that will work best for getting the word out about your show. Consider this: will it help you connect with your audience? Is your content visually-focused? Would a live broadcast come in handy? Go through all the factors and find out what is best suited for both your show and your personality. It is better to focus on a few platforms and do it really well than trying to spread yourself thin over all possible social media outlets and not reaching with the right people.
2. Create Partnerships
One of the best ways to gain exposure and get your content in front of new audiences is by partnering up with other accounts. The important thing is to make sure that the relationships are mutually beneficial, and that you have something to offer in the partnership as well. Getting featured on other accounts can be a great way to grow your own audience, even if it is just with a few people at a time.
3. Engage With Your Audience!!
There’s nothing better than having an account that actually engages with its followers! Your community appreciates every question you answer, each time you reach out to thank them for their support, and when you are actually being real with the happenings of your life! Building a strong community will draw in others and ultimately create a place where people come to find the help they need! It all starts with you and the time you are willing to put in to build those connections.
4. Provide Relevant, Valuable Content
Content, content, content. Of course, with your podcast you are always creating content so make sure to produce social media posts to compliment what’s going on in your show. The more you post on social media, the more opportunity there is for your audience to engage with you and what you have to offer. Most importantly, make sure that your content is relevant to your followers and provides them with value! Whether that is giving them a sneak peek of what’s to come on your new episodes, or putting together a handy guide for them to use in their own lives or business – you can’t go wrong with going the extra mile and giving your audience the value-add they’ve been looking for.
5. Set Monthly Goals
The only way to know if your social media strategies are effective for growing your podcast is to set goals! For each month, set a goal for each of the growth points – your community, number of podcast downloads, etc – and review them as the month has passed. This way you will know whether or not a strategy is working towards your ultimate goal of growing your podcast through social media. As you reach your goals, set new ones, reassess your strategies, and continue to build a strong community for your show!
6. Promote Strategically
Have you seen those accounts that are overly pushy with promoting their products or marketing their business constantly? Not your favorite? Well, if you don’t want your followers to feel that way about you then you have to find a strategic way to build leads and get new listeners to check out your show. Start out by giving your audience something of value first before asking them to do anything in return. Build strong connections, start a conversation, and then see where it leads. You can still successfully grow and promote your podcast, just take a strategic rather than sales-y approach and you will be one step ahead already.
7. Run Giveaways & Contests
Giveaways and contests are a great way to increase engagement and bring in new eyes if things are getting a little slow on the growth side of things. The opportunity to win gets everyone excited and the prospect of getting something for simply liking and following really seems to spread like wild-fire. More than that, it gives you the opportunity to make a one-on-one connection with the winner, adding in your personal touch. Each giveaway can be tailored to your specific community by what the prize is, how you’d like your audience to engage, and even how long it runs for. Shorter periods of time help to keep the buzz surrounding the giveaway and keeps the excitement and anticipation high. Go ahead, give it a try!
8. Build Community
As you grow your audience, at the end of the day you want to be surrounded by a community who supports you rather than a crowd of on-lookers. An engaged community that helps each other will provide a place where others can come for industry-specific help and support when they need it. On top of that, engage with others in your industry to create a strong network for your audience to draw from.
9. Make Your Accounts Visually Appealing
When it comes to social media, there is no doubt that there is a definite visual element involved. This is especially true with platforms like Instagram and Pinterest, where most followers are drawn to an account that looks good, and is visually appealing. Make sure your photos are high quality, well-edited, and relevant to what is trendy. Bring your podcast to life by creating a visual representation of what potential listeners will learn from listening to your show!
10. Create A Publishing Schedule
The foolproof way of making sure that you are consistently producing content on your social media platforms is to set up a content schedule. This helps you prepare ahead of time and makes sure that you have a bank of content to pull from to keep your audience engaged and informed of what’s going on in the world of your podcast! Creating a pre-planned schedule will help in those times where you are preoccupied or have too much on your plate to come up with your next post.
11. Provide Links to Your Show
A great way to get more eyes on your show is by actually providing your followers with a link to click on! An audience is often driven by a call to action, a little nudge for them to take the next step. Once they are part of your community, that next step is to head over to see what your podcast is all about! By giving a link that leads to your podcast or website, it is like a direct invitation and you make it easy for your followers to head over and find out what the show is all about.
12. More Is Better
Sometimes we get caught up in thinking about how often times “less is more”. However, when it comes to social media platforms it is always best to do more! The key is to always show up and be present. Keep your account current to let your followers know that you are working hard to be engaged, and you want to provide them with the best value for filling up their feeds!
13. Maximize Hashtag Usage
If you are using social media, you can’t avoid using hashtags. They are all over! Every social media channel is overflowing with content, which makes for a lot of stuff to wade through when you’re trying to find a single item. Hashtags are a great tool for searching and sorting so that you can easily identify the content that’s most important to you. Hashtags can also be used for content discovery across social media sites, to see what is trending across the web. Add hashtags to your account bio’s to help people discover you more easily.
14. Get Audience Feedback
So often podcasters are just dying to get feedback from their listeners to see how we can improve their show. However, with a podcast, the instant connection to your listeners is not always there. This is where your social media platforms come in handy – you can ask outright for those listeners out there in your community for their honest feedback. This feedback can be invaluable, and a great way to make the changes and make sure that you are serving your listeners and giving them the content they need.
15. Create Separate Strategies
Each and every social media platform has it’s own layout and uses. That is why it is important to approach every social media platform with separate plans of attack. Create specific strategies to target the audiences that each of your platforms serves. This way you can best reach those followers in a way that is effective for the individual social media channel.
16. Keep Up With Trends
Whether you’re a natural trend follower or not, the undeniable truth is that the common trends attract the most people! Sometimes it’s flat-lays, other times it’s latté photos, or maybe even a professional shot of your podcast recording set up. Find out what your audience is drawn to, stay up to date with the trends, and see how you can incorporate it into your podcast brand via social media.
17. Stay True to Your Show!
Sometimes we can get so easily swept away in the wave of social media. And yes, it’s important to keep up with the trends and adapt your content as they change. However, it is also crucial to stay true to your own show! Don’t lose the core identity of your podcast by following. Lead the way, incorporate your show, and stick with the initial goal that you had back when you recorded your very first episode. Don’t lose sight of what those goals were, and keep it front of mind at all times!
18. Track Your Growth
As you take a step back from your full-scale social media strategy, it is always good to assess what you have accomplished. Tracking your growth allows you to see if your approach has been effective, which channels to let go of, and where to put in that extra bit of effort. Use the tracking as a feedback mechanism to make sure that your social media growth strategies are actually benefiting your show and make the appropriate changes to adapt, adjust, and try something new in your next phase.
